Metal Arms and more!

Now, I realize I've been leaving you all in the dark for a while, and I'm sorry about that. But please understand that I absolutely MUST take occasional breaks from Cxbx and the emulation scene. Not only do I have a life outside of Cxbx (which you all can understand, I hope), but I can't overload myself or else I can't make good progress! I usually do better when I take a break for a month or two after exhaustion, then come back full force. The above screens are proof of this. Let's get on with the updates (I only have 7 minutes).

Lately, I've been putting some time and effort into emulating games with XDKs 5233-5558. Since I have the XDKs necesarry and games that I've been neglecting, I thought I'd take the time out to see what I could get working.

Metal Arms (First 4 screens, XDK 5558): This game is friggin awesome! I've been working with this game since yesterday, and it's already looking good. The intro videos play fine, but are a bit stuttery (as usual) and it reaches the menu screen just fine (but lacks textures, etc). "So, can you play it?" TBH, I don't know. The controller doesn't respond at all, so I can't find out if it goes in game or not. Keep in mind, that only the buggy screen represents in game gfx, not the others (they are all bink videos). If anyone has this game, please try it next time I get the SVN updated.

The other two screens are Tetris Worlds Live and XIII. Sorry, I have to cut this short, I only have a few seconds. I'll complete this update later. Stupid library...

Shogun.

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

Yeah! That's what I'm talking about, an RPG on Cxbx! But hey, any progress is good progress. Credit goes to LoveMhz for discovering this. I have to get a copy of Gauntlet sometime.

"Where have you been all this time?" Relax guys, some emu authors disappear for years without saying anything, just be happy I only disappear for months at a time :) But seriously, I'm in a lot of mess right now, and it's going to take a while to get it all sorted out. Housing, jobs, credit, the stuff you hate dealing with. Yeah, it sucks.

Enough of that, I'm tired of whining! As you can see, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (XDK 4242) is starting to work to a certain extent. So far, it only goes to the menus (keep in mind that I only have these screens to go by for now). When I get the game, I'll see what else needs to be fixed to get it working in general. I'm hoping that it's just a few missing APIs preventing it from working, and if that's all, it just might work no problem. So far, games that use XDK 4242 have been surprisingly easy to deal with (so far, I've only seen 3 games uses this XDK, including Smashing Drive and Slam Tennis) since it's basically the same as 4361.

"What's with all the texture bugs?" Good question... until I actually get the game, I can't really answer that. My guess is that the textures are being registered in the wrong formats (luminance, maybe?) or maybe it's a driver issue. Who knows. So when I get it, I'll see what I can do.

Unfortunately, my internet time has been reduced to little or none on a given day. I miss having control in life! Meh, could be worse...

Shogun.